The Convict
by Oz Watson
Summary: Jack "Subject Zero" is one of the most powerful and feared human biotics. For years now, she has painted the Galaxy red. Though, the fully tattooed young woman wears scars on her body, which remind her of the events on Pragia's Teltin facility. She has managed to build herself an ominous lifestyle, but the run from Cerberus has not yet come to an end and Omega is her new home.


**Prologue**

_"__They thought they were so clever. Turns out, mess with someone's head enough and you can turn a scared kid into an all powerful bitch."_

- Jack, Mass Effect 2

She hated that cell.

Subject Zero sat on the cold tiles of the especially for her existing room and stared through the large windows; out into the freedom and to this place which was the entire rest of the world to her. She recognized floors of metal, some doors and two lonely trees, which were so tall, that they reached several floor levels of the building. Everything about this locus was so incredibly dull and not-testifying, that only the fact, that day after day; week after week, nothing seemed to change, got her provoked. The walls were as gray as those of her room, only the trees with their green leaves and large pink flowers spread some colour. She didn't know the names of the plants, but the bottom line was, that there was barely a thing she had an idea about at all. The entire environment was like a giant mystery to her and no one, especially not herself, could ever have solved it for her. Almost impatiently, she waited for the biggest of the gates to open. When this was the case, children of all age groups, would start passing by her self-named prison. When Subject Zero wasn't taken away to be bothered by the grown-ups, to be watched, to be given injections or performed experiments on, she was always sitting at that exact spot and did everything that still remained: Waiting until something happened.

And then it was time. On the biggest of the metal doors flashed a green area with a small circle on it. The silhouette briefly rotated around itself, then became smaller and smaller until it disappeared. The two door halves slid apart vertically and vanished inside of the wall. Behind them, they uncovered a corridor, which was too far away, so the girl could not see where it led. At first it was empty, but just a few seconds later, dark figures approached, which became clearer with every step they took towards the doorway. The first child who stepped into the light had shoulder-length light brown hair, which is why Subject Zero assumed that it was a girl, just like she was one. As always when she saw one of them, she could not help but to rub her palms over her bald head, which had been shorn again only the day before. She could not explain to herself, why the others were allowed to have such beautiful long hair, while she could not have any. Sometimes she got little brown stubbles, which she proudly looked at in her reflection in the glass of the window. Every time they were destined to become nothing more than a distant memory of hers.

The girl was followed by other children who all wore the same dark blue suits with sewn numbers on their chests. Most of them had double digits, some even three digits, but no number stood on its own. Subject Zero looked down at her own garment, however, the colour was light-blue and the simple zero looked as lonely as her. Her hands slid over her face, streaked down her neck and drove over her bosom. They looked so similar and yet there was no point she had in common with this girl and all the other occupants of this building. They were like the colours black and white – the same in their roots but too alienated from each other to see them as one and the same. Some of the children were visibly younger than her, many about the same age, and a few even older. She could not estimate her exact age, but when she looked back on it later, she decided she was about fourteen or fifteen.

All youngsters proceeded in a row, until a security guard took the foremost place and led the group. This approach could only mean that they would do...something to them. What exactly, knew only the adults and if she had asked them at the right opportunity, they would have told her to shut up and possibly would have rammed a syringe up her arm.

Subject Zero tried to rise, to beat her fists against the glass to try to draw attention to her as she always did, but she was too exhausted. The knowledge that they wouldn't even have looked at her, was like ice-cold hands, grabbing her by the wrists to firmly nail them to the ground. As much as she would have loved to scream and shout; to spit the few obscene words she knew out, she lacked her strength that had just been pleasurably consumed by her devastating loneliness. She closed her eyes and the world in front of her was black with a blow. Completely blind, but still not disoriented, she crawled across the floor in search of the desk, which had always offered her protection and comfort from childhood days on. Even without seeing anything, she took the right way, and as her hands pushed against something cold and solid, she realized that she had reached her goal. She effortlessly crawled under the table surface and leaned her back against its small attached shelf. Immediately, she threw her arms around her knees to feel safer. A weird feeling in her stomach told her, that they would come back to get her.

Right when she thought about it, she heard the familiar sound of the locked entrance door sliding open on command. Yet she squeezed together her eyelids even harder, not willing to budge from the spot. No one could force her to leave the room, because under this table, no harm could ever reach her, unless she wanted it to. All she had to do was to believe her own words and to stay hidden. Minutes passed in which nothing accured. No one even called for her. Was she being put to the test, to find out whether she would take the chance? Would they punish her for it afterwards by pushing her even further?

Although no detail left the impression that they had constituted a trap, Subject Zero still needed a long time to leave her hiding place and to venture towards the door opening. From the left side came greyish smoke, just out of the bar, where the security code was entered. Presumably there had been a short circuit, that had led the door to budge by itself. As she stood rooted to the spot in front of her way to freedom, she dared not to move. This was the opportunity for which she had been waiting for so long; she just had to take it.

Subject Zero sat back a few steps, took a run and stormed off into the unknown. A thousand times she had envisioned what it would be like to someday be able to get out of this godforsaken place, but she never would have thought that it would happen before her final days had passed. She could feel the air as it caressed her skin and the scars from the experiments and suddenly, she felt alive again. She vowed that she would never forget this day, while her feet loudly beat against the floor.

"Hey! Stop right there! ", a male voice approached behind her, but it was not in her interest to be slowed down by anyone. As long as no one managed to incapacitate or imprison her again, no one could do anything against her. Her biotic powers, with which she could even hurl people through the air, had become far too strong. Therefore, she turned around, raising her arms in the form of an X with clenched fists, hurling a shock wave towards the guard. It was so strong, that she uttered a fierce blood-freezing cry while releasing the force. When the wave hit the security guard, he was thrown against a wall with such power, that he slid to the ground dead already. The wound on his head left a large trail of blood that ran down from the ceiling to the floor. However, this sight didn't shock her, because it wasn't the first time. Also, he wore no armor whatsoever. Therefore, she expected something like this to happen.

"Pretty impressive, huh? This is what you all wanted, right? ", she called down to the lifeless body. A slight laugh escaped her mouth, but soon enough she turned around to carry on her way. There was no time worth wasting.

The deeper she penetrated into the endless network of the building, the louder it got. She heard children cry out; adult voices trying to give commands. This was followed by loud, but dull strikes, which resembled that of the guard earlier. They were not so deafening, but sounded similar. Reflexively accelerating, the girl run its course, leaving more doors behind her with every step and ultimately ending up in the room from which the hype had come out. In the large entrance hall of which Subject Zero had only heard scientists talking so far, chaos had broken out. The guinea pigs rebelled against their opponents, using their, compared with those of subject Zero, puny forces to oppose against them. However, when she appeared in front of them, it got even worse. When the staff saw the main test object moving around freely, their first priority was to get her back under their wings. However, this time Subject Zero would not allow it. This here would come to an end forever. She wanted to get away from there as quickly as possible and never come back again. Suddenly, everyone came running up to her, even the other kids, while the girl once more raised her arms to fling them all away from her.

Subject Zero felt her adrenaline level rise steadily because of her actions, leaving behind a feeling of warmth and comfort and inspiration to continue with the act. She kicked, she punched, set biotic free and screamed her lungs out, just as she had always done while sitting in front of the pane. While she blindly struck not only employees, but also children, it got more and more quiet around her. The counter-attacks decreased, the movements in front of her slowed down until eventually, no more were to be seen. Her heart beat to her neck, her sweat-bathed body ached as she struggled gasping for air. She had used too much of her powers at once and now the side effects started showing. Somehow, she still managed to drag herself further, until she reached the next door leading into a world of freedom and a life outside of captivity. A long road of unknowingness lay in front of her, but all she could think about was her own rage, which slowly started to fade away, and getting out. There was nothing left to see, nothing left to hear. The rest of her journey she experienced only in trance, but the last thing she remembered just before her final escape, were the motionless bodies scattered on the tiles - each with the last touch of shock which they had achieved during their final breaths.

* * *

**_With this story, I'm leaving the fanfiction community of my mother tongue for the first time. Mainly because the fandom is not as big and varied. Therefore, I'd like to note, that English is not my native language and that there might be some mistakes from time to time. _**

**_Thanks for reading this short prologue. Make sure to tell me what you think, if you're up for it! Weekly updates._**


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